Overriding multiple laws: Ministry of Textile, attached departments at loggerheads

The Ministry of Textile Industry and its attached departments are at loggerhead over a new proposed legislation aimed at overriding multiple laws and ordinances under Ministry''s administrative control, it is learnt. The government in February 2015 announced the textile policy (2014-19) envisaging doubling of textile exports from the current level of $13 billion to $26 billion over the next five years, and creation of 3 million new jobs.
One of the integral components of the policy was introduction of new legislation to override multiple laws and ordinances under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textile Industry. The Ministry wants to club three laws including Pakistan Cotton Standards Institute (PCSI) Standardisation Ordinance 2002, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) cess act 1923 and textile Cess being collected for the National Textile University.
Currently PCSI, a department of the Ministry, collects Rs 20 per loom and one rupee per spindle, PCCC collects cess of Rs 5 per bale and Textile Commissioner Organisation (TCO) collects textile cess @ Rs 50 per bale for the National Textile University for research work and developing quality cotton seed. Textile Ministry under the proposed law is considering clubbing all these laws into one, after which all the collections would be made by the Ministry itself and disbursed accordingly.
However, other attached departments are opposing the proposed laws while saying that it would affect their independence and performance. The infighting has delayed the proposed legislation, affecting other important parts of the textile policy, officials added.
Further the proposed law aims at empowering the Ministry to form regulations and standards for achieving sustainable growth, increased productivity and value-addition throughout the textile chain. It will be the first-ever law pertaining to the textile industry, which will empower textile division to take final decision on every issue.
Presently, the Ministry has no power and cannot issue an SRO notification, however the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has also expressed annoyance at the proposed legislation which would give unbridled powers to the Ministry. According to sources, work on the final draft of the proposed act, pending for last six years, was completed last year in consultation with other stakeholders of the industry. The proposed legislation was ready to be submitted to the Law division for vetting, however over one year has passed and it is yet to be sent to the Law division.
The new legislation also aims at implementing the textile policy, strengthening the structure of textile industries and maintaining complete data on production of these units. In the proposed textile act, rules would be laid down and growth and activity of the industry would be monitored, sources added. The proposed law would empower the Textile Ministry to monitor the implementation of the textile policy and to ensure accurate statistics of production capacity, exports and total number of textile units in the country.